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Little Big Africa began working with Mutsasa
Primary School in 2008, after it was identified as being one of the
schools in the District with the greatest need for water. When LBA
first visited the school, there was no access road to the school,
and LBA walked from the top of the hill approximately 20 minutes
down to the village and school. The villagers temporarily cleared a
road so construction materials could be delivered to the school.
Mutsasa Primary School hosted LBA volunteers from ODA, a student
group from Oxford University, in July and August 2008.
The School
Mutsasa Primary School was founded in 1922 and became a Government
sponsored school in 2003. It is named after the area in which it is
situated.
Classrooms
Despite having seven classes of pupils, one stream of each year of
primary school, the school has only four semi permanent classrooms.
Three of the classes are taught outside under trees which act as
shade from the hot sun. The church, which is also semi-permanent and
situated in the school compound, is sometimes used as classrooms as
well. Parents have tried to locally fundraise for more classrooms
and have so far raised funds for, and put in place, the foundations
for two more classrooms.
Pupils and Teachers
The school currently has eight teachers: 2 women and 6 men. Most of
the teachers come from the surrounding villages, although one
teacher comes by bike from 6kms away. There are a total of 518
registered pupils, with the youngest class in the school P1, having
the most pupils at 127 pupils, and the final class of Primary
School, P7, having the least number with 30 pupils. However, due to
a variety of factors, attendance can be as low as 325 pupils on a
regular basis. This is common during the rainy season as pupils get
wet walking to and from school, and cannot sit under the tree during
this period. Some pupils are also registered by their parents at
Mutsasa but they choose to transfer themselves to other local
schools which have better (permanent) classrooms and furniture.
Although the school has enough furniture, many pupils are
uncomfortable sitting out under a tree to study.
Lessons
Regular mainstream subjects are taught at Mutsasa Primary School,
which include: Science, English, Maths, Agriculture, Religious
Education, PE, News, Literacy, Reading, Writing, Social Sciences,
Music, and Business Education.
Exams
In 2007, Mutsasa had 26 candidates who were registered to take the
final Primary Leaving Examinations. The school did not get any
pupils in Division One (the top division), but two pupils scored
Division Two, five pupils scored Division Three, and 2 pupils scored
Division Four. Three pupils failed to turn up for the exams and the
remaining 14 failed the exams.
Latrines
The school has six latrine stances, which are divided into use for
boys and girls although there are no latrines for teachers at
school.
Extra-Curricular
Extra-curricular activities at Mutsasa include sports, such as
football and netball, and music, dance and drama (MDD). Whilst the
school has netball posts, the football goal posts are only temporary
as the pitch is on the local village Chairman’s land. The only
instruments that the school owns are a locally improvised xylophone
and two locally made drums. Despite this, in 2008, the school
managed to come 6th out of 10 schools in the local schools MDD
competition.
School Meals
Pupils only receive meals at school during the third term (September
to November) as it is after harvest season and parents are then able
to contribute maize for the meals. The maize is then ground down to
form flour used to make ‘posho’, a common staple food. Parents rely
on UPE funds (funds from the central Government under the Universal
Primary Education programme) to provide food and other necessities
for their children in school, yet it rarely reaches the school.
Whilst parents are not happy or able to contribute to the school for
these necessities, they are more understanding these days about how
little the school can do without the UPE funds from the Government.
Teachers contribute throughout the year towards their own lunch,
although as teachers cannot always afford to contribute throughout
the year, the frequency of meals can be unreliable and not
necessarily available everyday.
Water and Sanitation
Prior to the water tank being constructed by LBA and ODA in August
2008, the school used approximately 120 litres of water a day, which
all needed to be collected from over 1km away from the school. Even
then, this water was collected from an unprotected water source, and
was seasonal, thus not being available in the dry season. This water
was used mainly for cooking and drinking water as well as cleaning
and handwashing. There was also no knowledge or means of purifying
water and therefore no drinking water was available at school for
either pupils or teachers.
Land
The other problem the school faces is local neighbours encroaching
on their land. As they fundraise for money and materials for new
classrooms as well as attempt to clear land for the sports pitches
(despite the school land not being particularly flat due to the
topography), they are slowly working on recovering the school’s land
that has been encroached.
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